future as past are alike present to Him who was every where before there was any distinction of times because nothing can bee said or done without his perfect knowledge or just notice Nothing can be begun continued or finished without his expresse warrant or intuitive permission He hath a vigilant eye over all things that are or possibly can be Or taking it againe as not impossible to imagination that divine knowledge were not so truly infinite as wee beleeve it is yet admitting his power to bee truly infinite nothing could be done said or intended without its concourse operation or assistance So that he might be everywhere by his infinite power albeit his knowledge were not infinite or every-where by his infinite knowledge albeit his power were but finite But by the infallible consequence of these indemonstrable principles it will necessarily follow That his Essence being as was shewed before truly infinite nor world nor time nor place nor power nor wisedome nor any thing possible can be where it is not it must needs be where any thing is or possibly may be He is in every center of bodily or materiall substances in every point imaginable of this visible Vniverse as an essentiall root whence all and every part of what is besides him spring without waste or diffusion of his substance without nutriment or sustentation from any other root or element The conservation of immaterial or illocall substances is from the benefit of his essentiall presence Materialls are daily made and renewed by the transient efficacy of his creative power 4 Doe we make these collections only or doth not the Scripture teach this Philosophy also Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God farre off Ier. 23. 23. Nothing is nothing can be without the reach of his power his omnipotency cannot be confined within the places that are for his hand hath made them all not as Prisons to inclose his Essence not as manicles to hinder the exercise of his mightie arme Can any hide himselfe in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Ibid. vers 24. This is a formall demand of our assent unto the infinitie of his knowledge These are two speciall but not the onely wayes of his being every where which the Scripture teacheth for there followes a third which after the manner of our understanding is the root or foundation of al the rest that indeed from which the two former branches are most necessarily inferred Doe not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord. Doth He fill heaven and earth by his power or by his knowledge onely Nay but most properly and in the first place by his essentiall presence For his Essence is infinitely powerfull infinitely wise His filling the earth as well as heaven by his essentiall presence cannot be denyed but from one of these two reasons following Either That his Essence is altogether uncapable of intimate coexistence with such grosse and base creatures as the parts of this inferiour world Or else Because it is his will to abstract or withhold his essentiall presence from them To affirme the former part to wit That his nature is uncapable of intimate coexistence with any nature created by Him is to deny his omnipotency as all by necessary consequence doe which grant not the immensity of his Essence For what can withstand or withdraw his Essence from piercing the earth as well as heaven Not the hardnesse of it not the loathsomnesse of the vile bodies contained in it If either of these qualitites or ought besides could deny the admission of his essentiall presence he were not omnipotent because not able to place his Essence in that locall space in which were it filled with more subtill or more glorious bodies it might as well reside as in the heavens Suppose he should as no doubt hee is able annihilate the earth and create a new heaven in the space wherein it now is or demolish his present heavenly seat or turne it into a baser masse then this earth is were it not possible for him to bee in this new heaven by his essentiall presence or should he be neither in it nor in the new earth If hee could not be here he were in this respect more impotent than the Angels who can change their mansions when they mislike them 5 Shall wee then take the latter part of the former division and say It is his will and pleasure to withdraw his Essence from this lower roome of his own Edifice whiles it remaines so ill garnished as now it is If hee have made heaven his habitation by choice not by necessity of his immensity with which all places as we contend must necessarily be filled hee might relinquish it by the like free choice of some other mansion which he could make for himselfe as pleasant and beautifull yea Hee might by the like freedome of will come and dwell with us here on earth So that in conclusion he which admitteth Gods wil to be free but denies the absolute immensity of his Essence makes him capable of locall motion or migration from place to place And such motion necessarily includeth mutability which is altogether incompatible with infinity Reason grounded on Scripture will warrant us to conclude from the former principle that hee which hath no cause of being can have no limits of being no bounds beyond which it cannot be Essence or being illimited cannot possibly bee distinguished by severalties of internall perfections though united much lesse can it be distinguished or limited by any place whether reall or imaginarie In that he is the authorlesse Author of all being it is altogether as impossible for Him not to bee in every thing that is as it is for any thing to be without Him The indivisible unity of his infinite Essence is the center and supporter of all things the conservation of place and that which holdeth things divisible from resolving into nothing 6 Dominus ipse est Deus in coelo sursum in terra deorsum The Lord saith Moses hee is God in heaven above and in the earth below Deut. 4. 39. yet saith Salomon 1 King 8. 27. Behold the heavens and the heavens of heavens are not able to containe thee May we say then Hee is as truely without the heavens as he is in them or that he is where nothing is with Him surely hee was when nothing was and then hee was where nothing was besides himselfe Or peradventure before the creation of all things numerable there neither was whē nor where but only an incomprehensible perfection of indivisible immensity and eternity which would still be the same though neither heaven nor earth nor any thing in them should any more be We may not so place him without the heavens as to cloath him with any imaginary space or give the checke to his immensity by any parallel distance locall But hee is said to be without the heavens in as much as his infinite Essence
souldiers that they were not able to stand before the multitude of their furious enemies in the third encounter And to try them the fourth time they had no courage The stumpe of that arrow which Detricus carried in his forehead to Rome in witnesse that he had confronted his enemies and was not wounded in the backe did pierce the hearts of some and daunt the spirits of other Romans And the fresh bleeding experiments of these Hunnes incredible fury might well occasion that generation and their children to flatter their cowardly fancies with forged tales as if it were no disparagement to the Romans though as yet in highest esteeme for valour amongst the sonnes of men to bee outdared by an inchanted generation of infernall monsters borne of witches and begot by Devils For such legends of these Hunnes originall have gone for currant amongst good writers and are not altogether out of date in some places unto this present day But the Romanes did want a Marius Sylla or Camillus to be their Dictator in these times Detricus was no Iulius or Germanicus what the best of these could haue done or durst haue attempted had they been living then is more then the spirit of any now living can divine hee that had made these in their times valorous had now decreed the beggerly Hunnes should bee victorious and there is neither counsell nor might against the Lord. 7 Or if this bee not canonicall scripture with politician let us examine whether the evidence of truth manifested in the historicall narrations whereon Machiavel comments have not extorted as much from him in a manner against his will and contrary to his purposed conclusions as the author of truth in this point hath taught vs. Hee saith Machiavel that wil compare the Romans wise carriage of state-businesses for many yeares together with their ill managing of matters wheÌ„ they were invaded by the Gauls shal find them so different as that the latter grosse error may seem to haue bin committed by another people not by the same So stangely doth Fortune so he now accords in termes with Livie whom herein he contradicted before blind the judgements of men when it is her pleasure not to have her power controuled whose authority is so great that neither they which are commonly exposed to danger deserve much blame nor they much praise which enjoy perpetuall felicity Fates may so strongly draw both parties this way or that way as the policie of the one shall not be able to prevent the evils which happen nor the others vertue be sufficient to bring forth good successe In fine taking Fortune and Fates for terms equivalent throughout his whole Discourse hee concludes for Plutarch That the greatnesse of the Romane Empire was decreed by Fate and with reference to this end as Rome could not in her growing age be overthrowne so it was expedient that she should often be oppressed and afflicted that her Statesmen might become more wary and wise for procuring that greatnesse which Fates had decreed to accomplish by them Wherefore that all these might take place the Fates which as he grants use meanes convenient for effecting their purpose had put Camillus to exile not to death suffered the City to bee taken by the Gaules but not the Capitoll and that the Citie might be taken with lesse adoe they had likewise ordained that the greatest part of the Romane army being discomfited by the Gaules should not retire to Rome but flye to Veios To knit up all as he speakes in a bundell it was the ordinance of Fates that the Romanes should for this turne use neither their wonted wit nor discretion for averting the evills which befell them and yet have all things made ready to their hands for defending the Capitoll and recovering of the City By the forecast of Fates not of the Romanes it was that exiled Camillus who was no way guilty of the wrongs which the Senate had done unto the Gaules no way obnoxious unto them but free from all obligements should bee at Ardea with one army and expected at Veios by another that they might with joynt forces assault the Gaules when they least expected and so recover the City 8 Had Machiavel told us what hee meant by Fates or Fortune wee might either quickly agree with him or easily confute him as disagreeing most from himselfe whatsoever hee meant by them it had beene a point of honesty in him to have craved pardon of Plutarch for contradicting him in the former discourse seeing hee borroweth Plutarchs owne language in this Comment of Romes surprizall by the Gauls If Machiavel by Fate or Fortune understand some branch of Gods decree or providence mentem teneat linguam corrigat For though he comment upon a Heathen writer it would no way misbeseeme him sometime so to speak as men might suspect him to be a Christian But not to question in what signification he used the words Fates or Fortune the reall attributes which he gives to Fate or Fortune cannot belong to any power in heaven or earth save onely to the onely wise invisible GOD for who can blinde the mindes of men of such politicke wiseâ—men as the Romanes were save onely hee who made our soules and giveth wisdome to whom he pleaseth who can make choise of excellent spirits for managing humane affaires present or entertaine occasions offered for great atchievances who againe can deprive such men men so qualified as Machiavel would have them of life depose them from their dignities or so abate their strength as they shall not bee able to make resistance when evills are determined That power onely can doe all these which knoweth all things worketh all things determines all things ruleth all things Yet all these attributes here specified hath Machiavel bestowed on Fate Either was this man stricken with heathenish blindnesse for detaining the truth in unrighteousnesse or else in seeing thus farre into events in his judgement Fatall hee might have seene Gods providence ruling in them and disposing of all humane affaires whatsoever The like contemplation of fatall or fortunate events led Commineus a man aswell seen in matters of state as Machiavel was unto a distinct view of Divine Prouidence as shall be shewed heareafter Whatsoever effect these observations wrought in Machiavel the perusall of them will lift up the Christian Readers heart to sing with Daniel Blessed bee the name of God for ever and ever for wisedome and might are his Hee changeth the times and seasons he giveth wisdome unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding 9 But though wee could make this or the like orthodoxall construction of Machiavels meaning in this discourse though fate and fortune in his language were the same that Gods providence is in ours Yet the use which hee makes of this his doctrine would neither be consonant to his owne principles elsewhere delivered not to the eternall truth Hoc unum pronunciabo de fortunae viribus fati
of the former rule of decorum in their comparisons than the holy Prophets are Thus hath the Lord spoken unto mee saith Esaias cap. 31. vers 4. Like as the Lion and the young Lion roring on his prey when a multitude of shepheards is called forth against him hee will not bee afraid of their voice nor abase himselfe for the noise of them so shall the Lord of hosts come downe to fight for mount Sion and for the hill thereof Saint Austin hath noted three sorts of errors in setting forth the divine nature of which two go upon false grounds the other is altogether groundlesse Some saith he there be that seeke to measure things spirituall by the best knowledge which they have gotten by sence or art of things bodily Others doe fit the Deity with the nature and properties of the humane soule and from this false ground frame many deceiptfull and crooked rules whilest they endeavour to draw the picture or image of the immutable Essence A third sort there be which by too much straining to transcend every mutable creature patch up such conceipts as cannot possibly hang together either upon created or increated natures and these rove further from the truth then doe the former As to use his instance He which thinkes God to be bright or yellow is much deceived yet his errour wants not a cloke in as much as these colours have some being from God in bodies His errour againe is as great that thinkes God sometimes forgets and sometimes cals things forgotten to minde yet this vicissitude of memorie and oblivion hath place in the humane soule which in many things is like the Creator But hee which makes the Divine nature so powerfull as to produce or beget it selfe quite misseth not the marke onely but the Butt and shoots as it were out of the field for nothing possible can possibly give it selfe being or existence 5 But though in no wise wee may avouch such grosse impossibilities of him to whom nothing is impossible yet must we often use fictions or suppositions of things scarce possible to last so long till we have moulded conceipts of the Essence and Attributes incomprehensible more lively and semblable then can be taken either from the humane soule alone or from bodies naturall To maintaine it as a Philosophical truth that God is the soule of this universe is an impious errour before condemned as a grand seminary of Idolatry Yet by imagining the humane soule to be as really existent in every place whereto the cogitations of it can reach as it is in our bodies or rather to exercise the same motive power over the greatest bodily substance in this world that it doth over our fingers able to weild the Heavens or Elements with as great facility and speed as we doe our thoughts or breath We may by this fiction gaine a more true modell or shadow of Gods infinite efficacy then any one created substance can furnish us withall But whilest we thus by imagination transfuse our conceipts of the best life and motion which we know into this great Sphere which we see or which sute better to the immutable and infinite essence into bodies abstract or mathematicall we must make such a compound as Tacitus would have made of two noble Romanes Demptis utriusque vitiis solae virtutes misceantur The imperfections of both being sifted from them their perfections onely must be ingredients in this compound Yet may we not thinke that the divine nature which we seeke to expresse by them consists of perfections infinite so united or compounded We must yet use a further extraction of our conceits ere wee apply them to his incomprehensible nature CHAP. 2. Containing two philosophicall Maximes which lead us to the acknowledgement of one infinite and incompreâ—ensible Essence VNto every Student that with observance ordinary will survey any Philosophicall tract of causes two maine springs or fountaines doe in a manner discover themselves which were they as well opened and drawne as some others of lesse consequence are wee might baptize most Atheists in the one and confirme good Christians in the other The naturall current of the one directly caries us to an independant cause from whose illimited essence and nature the later affords us an ocular or visible derivation of those generall attributes whereof faith infused giveth us the true taste and relish The former wee may draw to this head Whatsoever hath limits or bounds of being hath some distinct cause or author of being As impossible it is any thing should take limits of being as beginning of being from it selfe For beginning of being is one especiall limit of being 2 This Maxime is simply convertible Whatsoever hath cause of being hath also limits of being because it hath beginning of being for Omnis causa est principium omne causatum est principiatum Every cause is the active beginning or beginner of being and an active beginning essentially includes a beginning passive as fashionable to it as the marke or impression is to the stampe Or in plainer English thus Where there is a beginning or beginner there is somewhat begunne Where the cause is praeâ—xistent in time the distinction or limits of things caused or begun are as easily seene as the divers surfaces of bodies severed in place But where the cause hath onely precedence of nature and not of time as it falleth out in things caused by concomitance or resultance the limits or confines of their being seeme confounded or as hardly distinguishable as the divers surfaces of two bodies glued together Yet as wee rightly gather that if the bodies be of severall kindes each hath its proper surface though the point of distinction bee invisible to our eyes so whatsoever we conceive to have dependance upon another wee necessarily conceive it to have proper limits of being or at least a distinct beginning of being from the other though as it were ingrafted in it But whether we conceive effects and causes distinctly as they are in nature or in grosse so long as wee acknowledge them this or that way conceived to be finite and limited wee must acknowledge some cause of their limitation which as we suppose cannot be distinct from the cause of their being 3 Why men in these dayes are not Gyants why Gyants in former were but men are two Problems which the meere naturalist could easily assoyle by this reason for substance one and the same The vigour of causes productive or conservative of vegetables of man especially from which he receiveth nutrition and augmentation is lesse now then it hath beene at least before the Flood though but finite and limited when it was greatest Why vegetables of greatest vigour ingrosse not the properties of others lesse vigorous but rest contented with a greater numericall measure of their owne specificall vertues is by the former reason as plaine For in that they have not their being from themselves they can take no more then is
given nor can the natures whence they are propagated convey them a better title of being then themselves have This as the seale communicates his fashion to the waxe so doth the limited force or vertue of causes alwayes imprint bounds and limits upon their effects If further it be demanded why the Elements having the opportunity of mutuall vicinity to wreake their naturall enmities or hostilities doe not each trespasse more grievously upon other as why the restlesse or raging water swallowes not up the dull earth which cannot flye from any wrong or violence offered or why the Heavens having so great a prerogative by height of place largenesse of compasse and indefatigable motion do not dispossesse the higher Elements of their seat The naturalist would plead the warrant of Natures Charter which had set them their distinct bounds and limits by an everlasting undispensable law Yet is nature in his language alwaies an internall or essentiall part of some bodies within which it is necessarily confined As the nature of the Heavens hath not so much as liberty of egresse into neighbour Elements nor the proper formes of these upon what exigence or assaults soever made against them in their territories so much as right of removall or flitting into lower Elements Or in case it be pretended that these particular natures have a nature more generall for their president yet this whether one above the rest or an aggregation onely of all the rest is still confined to this visible world and both so hidebound with the utmost sphere that they cannot grow greater or enlarge their strength So that nature taken in what sense the Naturalist lists cannot be said so properly to set bounds or limits to bodies naturall as to bee bounded or limited in them Or to speake more properly Nature her selfe did not make but is that very domestique law by which they are bounded and therefore in no case can dispense with it And in that she is a law for the most part but not absolutely indispensable shee necessarily supposeth a Lawgiver who if he have no Law set him by any superiour as we must of necessity come in fine to some one in this kinde supreame hee can have no such limits or bounds as he hath set to nature and things naturall He neither is any part of this visible frame which we see nor can he be inclosed within the utmost sphere And thus by following the issue of the former fountaine we are arived in the latter which fully discovered opens it selfe into a boundlesse Ocean Whatsoever hath no cause of being can have no limits or bounds of being 4 And Being may bee limited or illimited two wayes Either for number of kindes and natures contained in it or for quantity and intensive perfection of every severall kinde Of things visible we see the most perfect are but perfect in some one kinde they possesse not the entire perfection of others and that perfection whereof they have the just propriety is not actually infinite 〈◊〉 finite and limited Whatsoever thus is it was as possible for it not to have beene and is as possible for it not to be as to be but of this or that kinde not all that is or hath being Even those substances which we call immortall as the heaven of heavens with all their inhabitants be they Angels or Archangels Principalities or Thrones enjoy the perpetuall tenour of their actuall existence not from their essence but from the decree of their Maker Manent cuncta non quia aeterna sunt sed quia defenduntur curâ regentis Immortalia tutore non egent haec conservat artifex fragilitatem materiae vi sua vincens Seneca Epist 58. All things continue in being not because they are eternall but because they are defended by the providence of their Governour Things immortall need no guardian or protector But the maker of all things preserveth these things which we see continue in being overmatching the frailty of the matter by his power In this mans philosophy nothing which is made can be by nature immortall though many things be perpetually preserved from perishing Nothing which is immortall can bee made He grossely erred if hee were of the same opinion with some others of the Ancient that God had a desire to make things immortall but could not by reason of the frailty or untowardlinesse of the matter But that things made out of the matter or made at all could be immortall by nature he rightly affirmed For to be immortall in his language is to be without beginning without dependance And what so is hath an eternall necessity of existence Absolute necessity of existence or impossibility of non-existence or of not being alwayes what it is and as it is implies an absolute necessity of being or of existence infinite which cannot reside save only in the totality or absolute fulnesse of all being possible The greatest fulnesse of finite existence conceiveable cannot reach beyond al possibility of non-existence nor can possibility of non-existence and perpetuall actuall existence be indissolubly wedded in any finite nature save only by his infinite power who essentially is or whose essence is to exist or to be the inexhaustible fountaine of all being The necessary supposall or acknowledgement of such an infinite or essentially existent power cannot more strongly or more perspicuously be inferred than by the reduction of known effects unto their causes of these causative entities whose number and ranks are finite into one prime essence whence al of them are derived it self being underivable frō any cause or essence conceivable In that this prime essence hath no cause of being it can have no beginning of being And yet is beginning of being the first prime limit of being without whose precedence other bounds or limits of being cannot follow 5 If that which Philosophers suppose to be the root of incorruption in the heavens can brooke no limits of duration but must bee imagined without end or beginning why should it content it selfe with limits of extension seeing duration is but a kinde of extension seeing motion magnitude and time by their rules in other cases hold exact proportion Things caused as induction manifesteth are alwayes limited and moulded in their proper causes Nor are there two causes much lesse two causalities one of their being another of their limitation or restraint to this or that set kinde of being For whatsoever gives being to any thing gives it the beginning of being As Sophroniscus was the true cause why Socrates was in that age wherein he lived not before or after why he was a man not a beast an Athenian not a Barbarian Quicquid dat formam dat omnia consequentia formam whatsoever gives forme of being to any thing gives all the appurtenances to the forme is a Physicall Maxime which supposeth another Metaphysicall Quicquid dat esse dat proprietates esse That which gives being unto any thing gives likewise the properties of such being as
and formally included in Gods love of absolute goodnesse righteousnesse and true holinesse And the displeasure or indignation which he beares to these must needes seize on their persons that have covered thēselves with them as with a garment and to whose soules they sticke more closely than their skinnes doe to their bodies or their flesh unto their bones CHAP. 20. Whilest God of a loving Father becomes a severe Iudge their is no change or alteration at all in God but onely in men and in their actions Gods will is alwayes exactly fulfilled even in such as goe most against it How it may stand with the Iustice of God to punish transgressions temporall with tormens everlasting 1_THe summe of all is this love was the Mother of all his workes and if I may so speake the fertility of his power and Essence And seeing it is his nature as Creator and cannot change no part of our nature seeing every part was created by him can bee utterly excluded from all fruits of his love untill the sinister use of that contingencie wherewith hee indued it or the improvement of inclinations naturally bent unto evill come to that height as to imply a contradiction for infinite justice or equity to vouchsafe them any favour Whether naturall inclinations unto evill may bee thus farre improved in the children by their forefathers or no is disputable but in another place Concerning Infants save onely so farre as neglect of duties to be performed to them may concerne their Elders seeing the Scripture in this point is silent I have no minde here or elsewhere to dispute If faith they have or such holinesse as becommeth Saints neither are begotten by our writing or preaching nor is the written word the rule of theirs as of all others faith that are of yeares And unto them onely that can heare or reade or have the use of reason I write and speake this as well for their comfort and encouragement to follow goodnes or for their terror lest they follow evill Love much greater than any creature owes or performes or is capable of either in respect of himselfe or in others is the essentiall and sole fruit of Gods antecedent will whether concerning our nature as it was in the first man or now is in the severall persons derived from him And of this love every particular faculty of soule or body is a pledge undoubted all are as so many ties or handles to draw us unto him from whom we are separated onely by dissimilitude our very natures being otherwise linkt to his being with bonds of strictest reference or dependency On the contrary Wrath and Severity are the proper effects of his consequent will that is they are the infallible consequents of our neglecting and despising his will revealed for our good or sweet promises of saving health The full explication and necessary use of this distinction hath taken up its place in the Articles of Creation or Divine Providence Thus much of it may serve our present turn That Gods absolute wil was to have man capable of Heaven Hel of joyes and miseries immortall That this absolute will whose possible objects are two is in the first place set on mans eternall and everlasting joy more fervently than man can conceive yet not so as to contradict it selfe by frustrating the contrary possibility which unto man it had appointed That Gods anger never kindles but out of the ashes of his flaming love despised Nor doth the turning of tender love and compassion into severity wrath presuppose or argue any change or turning in the Father of lights and everlasting mercy it is wholly seated in mens irregular deviation from that course which by the appointment of his antecedent will they should and might have taken whereto his fatherly kindnesse did still invite them unto whose crooked wayes which they doe but should not follow from which the same infinite goodnesse doth still allure them by every temporall blessing and deterre them by every crosse and plague that doth befall them 2 This bodily Sunne which wee see never changeth with the Moone his light his heat are still the same yet one and the same heat in the spring time refresheth our bodies here in this Land but scortcheth such as brought up in this clime journey in the sands of Affricke His beames reflected on bodies solid but of corruptible and changeable nature often inflame matter capable of combustion But as some Philosophers thinke wold not annoy us unless by too much light were we in that aethereall or coelestiall region wherein it moves At least were our bodies of the like substance with the heavens the vicinity of it would rather comfort than torment us Thus is the Father of lights a refreshing flame of unquenchable love to such as are drawne by love to be like him in purity of life but a consuming fire to such as he beholdeth a farre off to such as run from him by making themselves most unlike unto him No sonnes of Adam there be which in some measure or other had not some taste or participation of his bountie And the measure of his wrath is but equall to the riches of his bounty despised To whom this infinite treasure of his bounty hath beene most liberally opened it proves in the end a storehouse of wrath and torments unlesse it finally draw them to repentance According to the height of that exaltation whereunto his antecedent will had designed them shall the degrees of their depression be in hell for not being exalted by it Nor doth any man in that lake of torments suffer paines more against his will than he had done many things against the will of his righteous Iudge daily leading him to repenttnce The flames of hell take their scantling from the flames of Gods love neglected they may not they cannot exceede the measure of this neglect Or to knit up this point with evidence of sacred truth God alwaies proportioneth his plagues or punishments in just equality to mens sinnes And the onely rule for measuring sinne or transgression right must bee taken from the degrees of mans opposition to Gods delight or pleasure in his salvation Not so much as a dramme of his delight or pleasure can be abated not a scruple of his will but must finally be accomplished The measure of his delight in mans repentance or salvation shall beee exactly satisfied and fulfilled Mans repentance he loves as hee is infinite in mercy and in bounty mans punishment he doth not love at all in it selfe yet doth hee punish as hee is infinitely just or as hee infinitely loveth justice This is but the extract of Wisedomes speech Prov. 1. vers 24. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But yee have set at nought all my counsell and would none of my reproofe I also will laugh at your calamity I will mocke when your feare commeth When your feare commeth as desolation and your
built unlesse the Lord doe afford not onely his concurrence but his blessing to the labours of the one and to the watchfulnesse of the other But in this argument wee may expatiate without impeachment of digression from the matter or of diversion from our ayme in the following Treatise of divine providence 6. This present Treatise requires an induction sufficient to prove that every visible or sublunarie substance aswell the common matter whereof all such things are made as the severall formes which are produced out of it have an efficient cause precedent to their making or production For the seuerall formes or bodies generable which are constituted by them the induction is as cleare to every mans sense or understanding as any mathematicall induction can bee The naturalist is neither able nor disposed to except against the universalitie of it or to instance in any sublunarie bodie which hath not a true efficient cause or an agent precedent from whose efficacie its physicall or essentiall forme was either made or did result The question onely remaines about the efficiencie or production of the prime or common matter Seeing it is the mother of generation wee will not vexe the Naturalist by demanding a generative cause efficient of its beeing but that it must have some cause efficient wee shall enforce him to grant from a generall Maxime most in request with men of his profession The Maxime is That the philosophicall progresse from effects to their causes or from inferiour to superiour causes is not like Arithmeticall or geometricall progressions it cannot bee infinite Wee must at length come to one supreme cause efficient which in that it is supreame is a cause of causes but no effect and being no effect nor cause subordinate to any other Agent it can have no limit of Beeing it can admit no restraint in working Whatsoever we can conceive as possible to have limited Beeing or beginning of such Beeing must haue both frō it by it Now if the perfect workes of nature bodies sublunarie of what kind soever suppose a possibilitie physicall included in the prime and common matter before they have actuall Being if it imply no contradiction for them to have beginning of Beeing it will imply no contradiction that the prime mater it selfe or imperfect masse whereof they are made should have a beginning of its imperfect beeing That Physicall beeing which it hath doth presuppose a logicall possibilitie of beeing as it is that is no contradiction for it sometimes to be and sometimes not to haue beene This supreame cause or agent which as we suppose did reduce the logicall possibilitie of the prime matter of sublunary bodies into Act cannot be the heavens or any part of the hoast of heavē neither the sun moon nor stars For albeit the Sun be the efficient cause by which most workes of nature in this sublunarie part of the world are brought to perfection yet is it no cause at all of that imperfect masse or part of nature on which it workes Vnlesse it had some matter to worke upon it could produce no reall or solid effect by its influence light or motion how ever assisted with the influence of other stars or planets Yet must this prime matter have some cause otherwise it should be more perfect than the bodily substances which are made of it For they all stand in neede both of this prime matter as a cause in it kinde concurrent to their production and of the efficiencie of the Sunne or other coelestiall Agents to worke or fashion the materialls or Ingredients of which they are made If either this common matter of sublunary substances or the Sunne which workes upon it had no superiour cause to limit their beeing or distinguish their offices both of them should bee infinite in Beeing both infinite in operation Now if the matter were infinite in beeing the Sunne or other coelestiall Agents could have no beeing but in it or from it For if the Sunne were infinite in operation the matter it selfe could bee nothing at all no part of nature unlesse it were a worke or effect of the Sunne Infinitie in beeing excludes all possibilitie of other Beeing save in it and from it And infinitie in operation supposeth all things that are limited whether in beeing or operation to bee its workes or resultances of its illimited efficacie CHAP. 7. Shewing by reasons philosophicall that aswell the physicall matter of bodies sublunary as the celestiall bodies which worke upon it were of necessitie to have a beginning of their Beeing and Duration 1 FOr further demonstration that as well the Sunne which is the efficient generall as the prime matter which is the common mother of bodies sublunary had a beginning of beeing there can be no meane eyther more forcible or more plausible then another Maxime much imbraced and insisted upon by the great Philosopher to wit that as well the efficient as the materiall cause derive the necessitie of their causalitie from the end or finall cause unto which they are destinated The Sunne doth not runne its daily course from East to West or make its annuall progresse from North to South to get it selfe heate or for the increase of its native force or vigour by change of Climates but for the propagation of vegetables for the continuance of life and health in more perfect sublunary substances If then wee can demonstrate that those vegetables or more perfect sublunarie bodies for whose continuall propagation for the continuance of whose life and well-fare the Sunne becomes so indefatigable in its course had a true beginning of beeing that the propagation is not infinitely circular the cause will be concluded that as well the common matter whereof they are made as the Sunne it selfe which produceth them had a beginning of beeing and operation from the same supreame cause which appointed the Sunne thus to dispense its heate and influence for the reliefe and comfort of this inferiour world To prove that these sublunarie more perfect bodies as vegetables c had a beginning of beeing or propagation no Argument can be more effectuall to the Naturalist or others that will take it into serious consideration than the discussion of that probleme which Plutarch hath propounded Whether the Egg were before the Hen or the Hen before the Egg. The state of the question will be the same in all more perfect vegetables or living Creatures which usually grow from an imperfect or weake estate to a more perfect and stronger Whether the Acorne were before the Oake or the Oake before the Acorne Whether the Lyon had precedencie of nature to the Lyons whelp or the Lyons whelp unto the Lyon The induction may be for eyther part most compleate in respect of all times and of all places if with the Naturalist wee imagine the world to have beene without beginning or without ending No Naturalist can ever instance in any more perfect feathered fowle which was not first covered with a shell or contained in
were in their opinion contingent or at least supposed a Contingency before it became necessary Of this opinion was Pythagoras and his followers And so it seemes was Iustine Martyr But Lucan we know was somewhat allyed unto the Stoicks and out of his private conceit that the set time or manner of every mans death was no lesse necessary then death it selfe he might not inconsequently terme violent or sudden death Fatall And Tacitus who seemes to be doubtfull whether all things fell out by Fate or Necessity or no ascribes violent and undeserved death as well as naturall unto Fate For speaking of Agricola his untimely death as we would terme it he saith Constans libens fatum accepit He constantly and willingly entertained his Fate Martials conceit concerning Death and Fates is not much different from Lucans or this last cited place of Tacitus though not altogether the same Nullo fata loco possis excludere cum mors Venerit in medio Tybure Sardinia est From Fates no place is priviledg'd but when Death is their doome The pestilent Sardinia in Tyber findeth roome And as Death in his opinion could not bee repelled where Fates had granted his admission so neither could it be obtruded or admitted without the leave or approbation of Fates if the authority of the Father of Poets be authentique 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vexe not thy soule for none can send me to my grave before My day be come since all mens lives runne on a fatall score Which none may passe none not make up 't is not mans power or will Can change the period which is set as well to th' good as th' ill Virgil was somewhat of a better minde in this point than Homer was or they are which can thus liberally dispose of their friends bodies or bones Similis si cura fuisset Tum quoque fas nobis Teucros armare fuisset Nec pater omnipotens Troiam nec fata vetabant Stare decemque alios Priamum superesse per annos Had like care beene nor mighty love nor Fates did fore-ordaine Or Troy to fall or Priamus not tenne yeares more to raigne 3 That no man can dye before his Day come is an opinion in whose truth some are so confident as they will not stick to bequeath the bones of their dearest friends unto the divell if they should dye otherwise And it is certaine all things have their appointed time yet may wee not hence collect that no man can live longer or dye sooner than he doth or that the number of his dayes cannot possibly bee diminished or encreased But of this argument see Iustin Martyr or the Author of the questions and explications which have for a long time gone under his name In all these or the like acceptions of Fate and the very common conceipt which this name suggests there is an importance of necessitie And according to the severall degrees of necessitie Fates good or bad for so they divided them for their qualitie were subdivided into majora minora into lesser and greater fates Fata minora lesser fates were held alterable by enchantment or other curious practises taught by Sathan as imitations of those sacred rites or solemnities which God had ordayned for averting imminent plagues Fata majora chiefe or supreame fates were so unalterable so inflexible that their great god Iupiter could not command them but was to doe whatsoever was designed by them 〈◊〉 done Whence as Lactantius wittily 〈…〉 they could not rightly enstyle him Maxiâ—â—â— because hee was lesse then this kinde of Fateâ—â— in this heathenish division notwithstanding there was a true glimpse of a Christian truth hereafter 〈◊〉 â—â—sewere to be discussed Subordinate to this division of Fates were the opinions of the Caldean and Aegyptian Astrologers concerning the power or efficacie of the heavens over sublunary bodies The Caldeans were impious not in practise only but in opinion in that they held the operation of the heavens to be unalterable and unpreventable by the wit industry or skill of man all which such as follow Ptolomie the Aegyptian expressely deny bring good reasons for their deniall If their practises to foretell things to come bee no worse than their opinions concerning the manner how they come to passe it would bee no great sinne to be their Schollers 4 There is no Christian but will grant his God to be greater then Heathenish Fate and his Law to be above all controll of any other Law or power whatsoever And yet by the doctrine of many Divines the Almighty Lawgiver is made aeternally subject to his owne decrees Their meaning is taken by many to be in effect this That albeit God be Omnipotent yet it is true of him Post semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum That he had past his Omnipotent word concerning the ordering and managing of all things to come before it could be taken or accepted by any creature and that by his word thus past once for all for ever such irrevocable doome had passed upon some of his best creatures before their nonage in their non existence as they would not have accepted life or being it selfe when they first entred vpon possession of it if they had knowne upon what hard conditions it had beene tendred Or were it yet left free for them to disclaime those covenants or conditions of life and beeing whereunto they never gave their consent The greatest part of divine goodnesse which they could hope to be partakers of were to be released from the right of creatures and to returne againe to nothing Briefly by making God supreame Lord of such hard weirds or sinister Fates as are by these men inevitably awarded to absolute reprobates they doe not adde so much unto his greatnesse as they derogate from his goodnesse in respect of the heathen gods For unto such of the heathens as granted Fates a negative voice in some cases against the good purposes of their gods it was some comfort to thinke that their gods wished them well and did entreate them as great personages or courteous gentlemen do their sutors whom for the present they cannot pleasure as being overborn by the opposite faction But alas what can it boot poor impotent man to beleeve his Maker was not from aeternitie subject to Fates or any other law if by his owne Lawes or decrees he hath bound them before the world had beginning without all hope or possibility of release to harder conditions of Life then the heathens imagined could bee injoyned by Fates For it is probable that such of the heathen as were most peremptorie for the absolute necessitie of fatall events did thinke bad Fates had spit their poyson when this life was ended They did not suspect the miseries inflicted by them to be for time so everlasting or for their qualitie so unsufferable as wee Christians beleeve the torments of the life
effects are all directed to the accomplishing of Gods revealed purpose or consequent will upon Babylon as it were so many arrowes to their marke The Lord of hoasts was the Archer and Cyrus his bow whose intentions against Babylon must therefore prosper because The Lord of hoasts hath sworne by himselfe saying Surely I will fill thee with men as with caterpillers and they shall lift up a shout against â—hee Ier. 51. vers 14. There is not one clause of Cyrus his advise or exhortation to his followers after they had found the river to bee passable or of his proclamation after their entrance through the water-gate which Xenophon relates but is parallell to some part or other of Ieremies Prophesies Wee may boldly say all that Cyrus commanded was faithfully executed that the scripture might bee fulfilled 8 That which in reason might most daunt or deterre his souldiers from raunging the streets of Babylon was opportunitie of annoyance from the tops of their flat-roofed houses But this inconvenience Cyrus by his good foresight turnes to his advantage If any sath hee clime up to the tops of their houses as it is likely many of them would we have God Vulcan our confederate for their porches are very apt to take fire their gates being made of palmetrees asphaltites inunctae which will serve as oyle to cause them to take fire and wee have store enough of torches pitch and straw to inlarge the flame after the fire be once kindled By this meanes either we may enforce them to forsake their houses or burne both together The execution of this stratagem would quickly amate men already affrighted with the sudden surprisall of the Citie To this purpose the Lord had spoken long before The mightie men of Babylon have forborne to fight they have remained in their holds their might hath failed they became as women they have burnt their dwelling places her barres are broken Ier. 51. vers 30. One post shall runne to meete another and one messenger to meet another and shew the King of Babylon that his citie is taken at one end And that the passages are stopped and the reedes they have burnt with fire and the men of warre are affrighted verse 31 32. Xenophon tels us that after Cyrus had given Gobrias and Gadatas in charge to conduct the Armie with all speede to the Kings Palace Si qui occurrebant of such as came in their way some were slaine others retired againe into the citie others cryed out That which made the noyse more confused and the danger lesse apprehended was that Gobrias and his souldiers being Babylonians by birth did counterfaite the roaring of that unruly night Whatsoever occasion of distast or implacable discontent the proud King had given to these two captaines whether those which Xenophon reports or others the finall cause of that successe which their bloody intentions against their native King did finde was the accomplishment of Gods will reuealed against him for his Grandfathers crueltie against Ierusalem whereof being gently warned by Gods Prophet he no way repented but added gall to wormwood and thirst to drunkennes O thou King the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdome and majestie and glorie and honor And for the Majestie that he gave him all people nations and languages trembled and feared before him whom he would he slew and whom hee would he kept alive and whom hee would hee set up and whom hee would hee put downe But when his heart was lifted and his minde hardened in pride he was deposed from his Kingly throne and they took his glorie from him And hee was driven from the sonnes of men and his heart was made like the Beasts and his dwelling was with the wild Asses they fed him with grasse like Oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till hee knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdome of men and that hee appointeth over it whomsoeuer he will And thou his sonne O Belshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou knewest all this but hast lifted up thy selfe against the Lord of heaven and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee and thou and thy Lords thy wives and thy Concubines have drunke wine in them and thou hast praysed the gods of silver and gold of brasse yron wood and stone which see not nor heare nor know and the GOD in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy wayes hast thou not glorified Then was the part of the hand sent from him and this writing was written And this is the writing that was written MENE MENE TEKEL VPHARSIN This is the interpretation of the thing MENE God hath numbred thy kingdome and finished it TEKEL thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting PERES thy kingdome is divided and given to the Medes and Persians Dan. 5. vers 18. to 29. 9 Thus wold Daniel have cured Babel but she was not cured by him howbeit Belshazzar was more kinde to Daniel then to himselfe then most great Princes are to Gods best Prophets that reprove them For he commanded and they cloathed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third Ruler in the kingdome In that night was Belshazzar the King of the Caldeans sâ—aine And Darius the Median tooke the kingdome being about threescore and two yeere old Dan. 5. vers 29 30 31. For it is not the bestowing of a Scarlet robe of Court holy water or of reall honour in greatest measure upon Gods servants that can couer a scarlet sinne in Princes The staine of blood can never be washed off nor the crie of the oppressed blowne away though the whole element of water winde ayre were at their commands without the teares and sighs of the oppressors whose hearts cannot be cleansed without repentant prayers Ierusalems sighs and teares in her sorrow had sunke too deepe into the Almighties eares to be expiated without the sacrifice of many sorrowfull hearts and contrite spirits throughout Babel Israel is a scattered sheepe the Lyons have driuen him away first the king of Assyria hath devoured him and last this Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon hath broken his bones Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel behold I will punish the King of Babylon and his Land as I have punished the king of Assyria And I will bring Israel againe to his habitation c. Ier. 50. vers 17 18 19. Thus Israel is revolved from Gods consequent wil to his antecedent Babylon from his antecedent to his consequent will And for the speedy execution of both parts of this his will for Israels good and Babylons hurt the Persian Monarchy is with such speed erected 10 But some happily will here demand wherein the similitude mentioned by Ieremie betweene the King of Assyria and the King of Babylons punishments did consist Senacharib
miscariage must be referred for breuities sake to other Treatises Onely to shut vp this exemplification of the Prophets assertion verified in peculiar sort in Hungary what example of Divine Iustice either more pregnant or more durable was ever manifested in Iudea than was to bee seene every morning for more then twenty yeares together in the fields of Moacz where the horse and his royall rider King Lewis found a miserable grave before they were quite dead but where the bones of such as were slaine in that unfortunate battaile lay unburyed in such abundance as did exhibit a wofull spectacle to every Christian passengers eye from the yeare 1526. untill the time of Busbequius his embassage to Constantinople how long after I know not which was upon the mariage betweene King Philip and Queene Mary about the yeare 1555. The Christian Hungars of those times after the losse of their late mentioned King had as just cause to insert that lamentation into their Liturgie as Ieremie had to take it up The annointed of the Lord was taken in their nets of whom we said under his shaddow we shall be preserved alive among the Heathen Lamentations 4. 20. As full an interest in that complaint of the Psalmist as the ancient Iewes had during the time of Nebuchadnezzar or Antiochus his rage The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meate unto the fowles of the heaven the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth their blood have they shed like water there was none to burie them Ps 79. 2 3. The pittifull women of Iudea did eate their Children when Titus besieged Ierusalem The women of Hungarie no lesse mercifull as may be presumed than other Christian women are buried their Children alive lest their timorous outcryes might bewray the place of their abode or latitation when Soliman and his furious helhounds did so greedily hunt after their lives The people of Hungary would not take example from the miseries which had befallen Iudea nor breake off those sinnes which brought this miserie upon them GOD grant the Prophets and Seers of this kingdome eyes to discerne and this whole people one and other patient hearts to heare those sinnes whether of practise or opinion discovered which threaten the like judgements unto this Land as have befallen the Kingdome of Hungarie one of the most flourishing Kingdomes in the Christian world within a few yeares before its ruine FINIS * Nec dictis erit ullus bonos si cum actus ab urbe Daunius hostili Teucris urgentibus heros Vix pugna absistit similiâ— dicetur Asello Quâ—m pueri laeto pascentem pinguia in agro Ordea stipitibus duris detrudere tendunt Instantes quatiuntque sudes per terga per armos Ille autem campo vix cedere inter eundum Saepe hic atque illic avidis insistere malis Omnia conveniunt rerumque simillima imago est Credo equidem sed turpe pecus nec Turnus Asellum Turnus avia atavisque poteâ—s dignabitur heros Aptius hanc speciem referat Leo quem neque tergae Ira dare aut virtus patitur neque sufficit unus Tendere tot contra telisque obstare sequentum Hieron Vida Poet. lib. 2. * Et hic quidem omnium morbus est trium generum quae proposui eorum scilicet qui secundum corpus de Deo sapiunt eorum qui secundum spiritualem creaturam sicuti est anima eorum qui neque secundum corpus neque secunduÌ„ spiritualeÌ„ creaturaÌ„ et tamen de Deo falsa existimant eo remotiores à vero quo id quod sapiunt nec in corpore reperitur nec in facto condito spiritu nec in ipso creatore Qui enim opinatur Deum verbi gratia candidum vel rutilum fallitur sed tamen haec inventantur in corpore Rursum qui opinatur Deum nunc obliviscentem nunc recordanteÌ„ vel si quid hujusmodi est nihilominus in errore est sed tamen haec inveniuntur in animo Qui autem putant ejus esse potentiae Deum ut seipsum ipse genuerit eo plus errant quòd non solum Deus ita non est sed nec spiritualis nec corporalis creatura Nulla enim res omnino est quae seipsum gignat ut sit Aug. de Trinit lib. 1. cap. 1. * In the 5. Book Section 3. 1 * Mittamus animum ad illa quae aeterna sunt Miremur in sublimi volitantes rerum on niuÌ„ formas Deumque inter illa versantem providentem quemadmodum quae immortalia facere non potuit quia materia prohibebat defendat à morte ac ratione vitium corporis vincat Senec. ib. Whether for thus saying hee fall under the censure of Muretus in his annotations upon this place I refer it to the judicious Reader Impie stulta veterum opinio Deum voluisse quidem à primo omnia immortalia facere sed non potuisse propter materiae vitium Quasi non ut caetera omnia ita materiam condiderit ac procrearit Deus Recte Lactaâ—â—tius Idem materiae fictor est qâ—i rerum materia constantium * Qui scholas reguÌ„t ia id nobis exploratuÌ„ reliqueruÌ„t tale esse conditionalis propositionis naturam sive conditionem ut existente falso quod antecedit etiam quod subsequitur possit remanere vera conditionalis Pasq c. 1. ad RoÌ„ fol. 65 Though it were impossible for an Angell from heaven to preach any other Gospell than Paul had preached and impossible likewise for any Angell of heaven to be accursed yet S. Pauls conditionall proposition was true If an Angell from heaven should preach any other Gospell he should be accursed In like manner this supposition or conditionall If any thing could take beginning from it selfe it should be infinite is true although both these positions be false First that any thing can take beginning from it self Secondly that any thing which hath beginning can be infinite And this only is absolutely true That which truly is without all beginning is absolutely infinite * Idem absolutum quod et Deum dicimê° non cadit in numero cum omni alio ut quod Deus coelum sint plura aut duo aut alia diversa sicut nec coelum est idem absolutum ut coelum quod est aliud à terra Et quia idem absolutum est actu omnis formae formabilis forma non potest forma esse extra idem Quo enim res est eadem sibiipsi forma agit quòd autem est allerialias est quia non est idem absolutum hoc est omnis formae forma Est igitur idem absolutum principium medium finis omnis formae actus absolutus omnis potentiae Cusan de Genes dialog pag. 128. * Lib. de ente uno * Ex. 3. 14. * Cum primum ingressus Academiam sueris occurret tibi Parmenides qui unicum